Now, after 32 years with Ward at the helm, the Regional Employment Board is looking for someone to fill Ward's job. He's announced plans to step down and the search for his replacement will begin immediately. Ward expects the Regional Employment Board to make a decision on his replacement toward the end of this year. He'll leave just a few weeks later in late December or early January of 2014.

"Economic development really does boil down to creating jobs," Ward said. "But a job that goes unfilled because there is not someone with the requisite skills don't help anyone. In fact, it is a problem for a company if there isn't someone to fill that role."

But as Joseph Peters, CEO of Universal Plastics in Holyoke and chairman fo the REB's board of directors said, today's jobs are increasingly technical and specialized. Companies, especially manufacturers such as Universal, need to squeeze the most productivity out of every payroll dollar.

"And in order for a region to do anything economically, you really need a prepared, trained work force," Peters said. "Bill Ward really understands that. Bill’s talents will be missed and he leaves very big shoes to fill at the REB.”

Allan W. Blair is president and chief executive officer of the Economic Development Council of Western Massachusetts, said Blair will be hard to replace.

"He's really someone with a national profile when it comes to some of these issues," Blair said.

Ward said the Regional Employment Board works because he listens to employers like Peters or Baystate Health or Mercy Medical Center or Smith & Wesson. He learns what the challenges are, what employers need and what needs they anticipate in the future. Then listens to government agencies and other entities in a position to fund things to find out what money is available.

"I just spent the better part of a day meeting with the casino people," Ward said. "That will be a change in our workforce needs. We'll need local people trained for those jobs, either in the kitchens or technical jobs keeping the buildings running."

Between government and industry, there must be a solution somewhere, whether it is continuing education for experienced machinists or the "Talk/Read/Succeed!" program for preschoolers in Springfield's public housing and Hasbro Summer Learning Initiative, which helps Springfield school children keep up with their language and math development during the summer vacation.

A great deal of effort goes toward adult basic education , Ward said. There simply are not a lot of adult reading or English as a second language programs to serve the need.

And after those basic needs are met education has to continue.

"Let's say I ask you, how is your math? How good are you at trigonometry and graphing?" Ward said. "Well if you are going to work in any of these advanced machining jobs, you are going to need that. So what we are going to do is we are going to put you in a two-week crash course and at the end we are going to test you to see what you have learned."

The focus, Ward said, needs to be on skills, not on pieces of paper.

"A GED is just a credential," Ward said. "The main thing is learning those skills."

The Regional Employment Board has an annual budget of $12.3 million, 60 percent of that is federal money and most of the remaining 40 percent comes from the state. There is some private money. In return, The Regional Employment Board funds one-stop career centers with unemployment benefits, job listings and help with interviewing and resume skills, and offers its vocational training through those centers.

There also is training available for health-care professionals.

Someone comes in to the one-stop center and says they want to be a truck driver, the Regional Employment Board can get them the commercial driver's training if they qualify.

Only about $1 million of the REB's budget goes to overhead and administration.
According to the Regional Employment Board's 2011 IRS 990, the most recent one available, Ward received a base salary of $135,952 toward a total compensation of $180,875 in 2011.

Ward, who lives in Westfield and is a father of two, was working as a guidance counselor and vocational educator when Herb Almgren, then president of Shawmut Bank, recruited him to the Regional Employment Board's predecessor organization.

"I really founded the REB," he said."There was only one employee at first."

There are 21 employees now, mostly working on contracts with training vendors.

And Ward shies away from he word retire.

"I hope to work independently on projects that I see as filling a need here in the Pioneer Valley," he said.